Forms: 4 frooth, froþe, 5–6 frothe, 6–8 froath, 4– froth. [Not found in OE.; perh. a. ON. froða wk. fem. (Da. fraade; the relation of Sw. fradga is obscure), related to the synonymous ON. frauð neut.; the root (OTeut. *freuþ-, frauþ-, frud-) appears in OE. á-fréoðan to froth.
Possibly the Eng. word represents both ON. frauð and froða; for the later shortening cf. cloth.]
1. The aggregation of small bubbles formed in liquids by agitation, fermentation, effervescence, etc.; foam, spume; = FOAM sb. 1.
1382. Wyclif, Hos. x. 6. Samarie made his king for to passe, as frooth on the face of water.
cc. 1440. Promp. Parv., 180/2. Frothe, spuma.
1530. Palsgr., 223/1. Frothe of an egge, glette.
1589. Greene, Menaphon (Arb.), 24. He begain to consider how Venus was feigned by the Poets to spring of the froathe of the Seas.
1648. Gage, West Ind., xvi. 106. Untill it bubble and rise into a froath.
1672–3. Grew, Anat. Roots, I. iii. § 4. The Froth of Beer or Eggs.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 333. The wind continuing fresh, the water was all a white foam of froth.
1795. Sir J. Dalrymple, Lett. to Admiralty, 4. It would prevent the Yeast, or, as it is commonly called, the Froth, from bubbling over.
1806. Gazetteer Scotl. (ed. 2), 132. This second caldron is always covered with a foam or froth.
1886. Tip Cat, xxii. 300. She … had shaken the bottle so vigourously that its contents were more than half froth.
transf. and fig. 1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 108. Through the resistyng of the froath & enticementes of sinne, & dayly subduyng therof.
1635. Swan, Spec. M., i. § 3 (1643), 24. It will be proved, not onely the doting froth of a wittie brain, but also a superstitious and an heathenish vanitie.
1676. Dryden, Aurengz., V. (1685), 71. Forgive those foolish words—They were the froth my raging folly mov’d When it boil’d up.
1692. Wagstaffe, Vind. Carol., Introd. 11. My end is … to blow off that Froth, that has been thrown on his Memory.
1824. Landor, Imag. Conv., Wks. 1846, I. 3/1. Society is froth above and dregs below, and we have hard work to keep the middle of it sweet and sound, to communicate right reason and to preserve right feelings.
1878. Morley, Carlyle, Crit. Misc. Ser. I. 194. Time and nature once and again distil from out of the lees and froth of common humanity some wondrous character, of a potent and reviving property hardly short of miraculous.
b. spec. Foaming saliva issuing from the mouth.
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 1572. Þe froþe femed at his mouth vnfayre bi þe wykez, Whettez his whyte tuschez.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XXXV. x. 542. The froth which fell from his [a dog’s] mouth as hee panted and blowed almost windlesse with running.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Froth … is a moist white matter that oozes from a horse’s mouth.
1885. Syd. Soc. Lex., Froth, bronchial, the tenacious frothy secretion expectorated in some cases of asthma … and other affections of the respiratory organs.
c. Extraneous or impure matter rising to the surface of liquids during boiling, etc.; scum.
1533. Elyot, Cast. Helthe, II. xviii. (1541), 134. That [water], wherof commeth least skimme or froth, whan it doth boyle.
1648. Gage, West Ind., xvi. 107. In wine which is in the Must … a thinner substance, which is the flower, and may be called the scum, or froath.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), I. 170. To skim off the froth collected on the surface.
1878. Huxley, Physiography, 193. The stone largely used for scouring paint under the name of pumice is a lava of very porous texture; its name recalling its origin as the froth or scum of lava.
1883. Hardwick’s Photogr. Chem. (ed. Taylor), 363. A mixture is made of Gelatine, Albumen, [etc.] … the ingredients being well beaten together; when the froth has settled down the mixture is filtered.
2. Something comparable to ‘froth’ as being unsubstantial or of little worth.
1593. Shaks., Lucr., 211.
| What win I if I gaine the thing I seeke? | |
| A dreame, a breath, a froth of fleeting joy. |
1604. Earl Stirling, Darius, i. Chorus. Drunke with frothes of pleasure.
1612. Brinsley, Lud. Lit., 210. Found by a learned and a iudicious examiner, nothing but froth, childishnesse and vncertaintie, in the greatest ouerweening of wit and learning.
1686. Horneck, Crucif. Jesus, xxii. 629. When thou hast delighted in Froth, and idle Talk; have not these been Signs of Satan’s entring into thy Heart?
1702. C. Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana, III. iii. (1852), 547. It was food and not froth, which in his publick sermons he entertained the souls of his people with.
1783. H. Blair, Rhet. (1812), II. xviii. 23. There is no froth nor affectation in it.
† b. Applied to what is tender or immature.
a. 1420. Hoccleve, De Regimine Principum, 2270. We Romayns þat þey han in prison loke, Ben but ȝonge froth, vnlernëd in batayle, And othir feble folk with age I-broke.
1557. Tusser, 100 Points Husb., lix. Eate vp thy veale, pig and lambe being froth.
3. Applied contemptuously to persons. Cf. SCUM.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., I. i. 167. Froth, and scum thou liest.
1603. Dekker, Grissil, III. ii. Wks. (Grosart), V. 168. Out, you froth, you scumme.
1678. Marvell, Growth Popery, 22. The Froath of the Town, and the Scum of the University.
1887. Hall Caine, Deemster, xv. That his son should consort with all … the dirtiest froth of the sea.
4. attrib. and Comb. a. attributive, as froth-flake; froth-like adj.; b. instrumental and originative, as froth-becurled, -born, -clad, -faced, -foamy adjs.; c. special comb., as froth-spit = CUCKOO-SPIT 1; froth-stick, a stick for whipping cream, etc. Also in many names given to the frog-hopper (Aphrophora spumaria) or cuckoo-spit insect, as froth-fly, -frog-hopper, -insect, -worm.
1624. Milton, Ps. cxiv. 8. That saw the troubled sea and shivering fled And sought to hide his *froth-becurled head.
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Poems, Wks. (1711), 19/2.
| Sweet nymphs, if, as ye stray, | |
| Ye find the *froth-born goddess of the sea | |
| All blubber’d, pale, undone, | |
| Who seeks her giddy son, | |
| That little god of love. |
1769. Home, Fatal Discov., v. The *froth-clad pool.
1625. W. Harbert, Poems (Grosart), 81. *Froth-faced Neptune.
1841. Browning, Pippa, Introd. 6. Not a *froth-flake touched the rim Of yonder gap in the solid gray Of the eastern cloud.
1864. *Frothfly [see FESCUE 4].
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. xi. 23. The nimble thyes Of his *froth-fomy steed.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1843), II. 10. The noise was occasioned by a flight of the *froth frog-hoppers (Aphrophora spumaria), which entered the room in such numbers as to cover the table.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), VII. 355. Of the Earwig, the *Froth Insect, and some others.
1860. O. W. Holmes, Elsie V. (1861), 257. A very shallow crape bonnet frilled and *froth-like.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., *Froth spit or cuckow spit.
a. 1706. Country Wedding, in Watson, Collect. Scots Poems, III. (1706), 47.
| My Bairn has Tocher of her awn … | |
| A *Froath-stick, a Can, a Creel, a Knock, | |
| A Braik for Hemp, that she may rub, | |
| If ye will marry our Jennie, Jock. |
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., VII. II. v. 358. To this order of insects we may also refer the Cuckow Spit, or *Froth Worm.
